Magic Leap – New Alternate Reality Worth $500 Million

Magic Leap Inc. announced today that it has completed a $542 million Series B financing. The financing was led by Google, with participation from Qualcomm Incorporated. The company will use the proceeds to accelerate product development, release software development tools, expand its content ecosystem, and commercialize its proprietary mobile wearable system.

Google’s multi-million dollar investment in augmented reality seems to be baring fruit. Magic Leap appears quite extraordinary if the demo video below is any indication. Productivity functions like being able to access websites and desktop apps from airborne virtual icons are demonstrated, as well as a shooter game using physical weapons and the world around you.

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Magic Leap was founded on an idea: that computing and technology should bend to us, to our needs, to our humanity, and to our experience. People should be first. Technology should serve us. Computing should match human experience, it should respect human physiology.Computing can feel like everyday magic, and it can feel much more human, much more like our world. Our mission is to deliver on this dream, so that people can benefit in new ways from the power of computing, from the possibilities of being connected, sharing, and knowing.We are also working hard to make video game experiences in our system really freaking cool. I love working with Graeme Devine – he understands that a new medium requires new thoughts on game design, new SDK tools. I want Magic Leap to become a creative hub for gamers, game designers, writers, coders, musicians, filmmakers, and artists.We also have the possibility to positively transform the process of education. To change how we design things. To make our communications feel real. How we shop. How we create. How we discover each other, and how we can explore completely new worlds.Magic Leap is in the very beginning of its journey. We are reaching out to application developers, to artists, and to musicians. We are meeting with major production companies, but we are just as excited when we meet a single developer, dreaming big dreams.The world at times can be hard and cynical. But every generation deserves its chance to dream again, to dare to fly to the moon. The world today can be frightening at times, but the promise of a good life is always there. It takes creative thinking. It takes open minds. That is where we are going. I hope that you can join us.

“You can think of us as techno-biology,” Magic Leap CE Rony Abovitz told a Reddit AMA last year. “We believe it is the future of computing.”

It certainly looks incredibly interesting, and just like Microsoft’s Hololens we have to wait and see how it turns out. Lets hope that some more information comes soon, with a specific availability date and potential pricing.

We will bring you any new information on Magic Leap as soon as it becomes available.